


Roommate Problems

by JulianJoyStark



Category: Evil Dead (Movies), Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Addiction, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Crossover, M/M, Slow Burn, Trauma, and i mean really slow, ash is just confused, dan is tired, herbert is jealous, its gonna be pretty long i think, the relationships in this story are eventual
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27199762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulianJoyStark/pseuds/JulianJoyStark
Summary: Dan wants a new roommate. If only his current one would be as welcoming as he is.Luckily, Ashley doesn't care if Herbert likes him or not.
Relationships: Daniel Cain/Ash Williams, Daniel Cain/Herbert West
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second ever fanfiction for Reanimator and my first fanfiction using Ash Williams.   
> It's also my first ever crossover. Wow.   
> Uh, this is set after Bride of Reanimator, I like to imagine they simply moved into a different house together.   
> Ash in this story comes from after Army of Darkness, although he isn't really ready to talk about any of that yet.   
> I hope you like it!  
> The first few chapters are probably short, but it will get longer. I'm just lazy.   
> I don't have a beta reader so forgive any mistakes I didn't catch, I am stupid.

After things went bad with the Bride, Dan Cain decided he needed a new room mate. 

Not that things had ended with Herbert, somehow the small man never seemed to die. Maybe it was all the green slime he had running through his veins, maybe it was just determination to make Dan’s life a living hell. Either way, he’d crawled out of the crypt shortly after Dan did. Worse for wear, but still alive and kicking. 

Herbert had of course protested, that a third person living in their new house would just get in the way of the work. When Dan brought up that maybe they should take a short break from the work, of course Herbert had a million reasons why they couldn’t do that. 

“Every day that we don’t have a perfected Re-agent, people are dying, Dan!” He argued, lighting up the way Dan had seen him do every time they argued about this. 

“Does that count the people that you’ve killed while working on it, or no?” Dan argued back, rolling his eyes and continuing to unpack their flatware. “Besides, if you just keep the work in the basement, another roommate should never find out about it.” There he was again, compromising. Saying they would still work on the serum. 

“Why do you need another roommate anyway?” Herbert asked, and Dan picked up on the jealousy lacing his tone. The shorter man wasn’t even unpacking anything, he was just standing in the kitchen watching Dan do all the work. This was why he needed another roommate. 

“I want a normal roommate, Herbert. I want someone I can watch television with and maybe go out for drinks once in a while.” It sounded more like he wanted a partner when he said that, even if that’s not really what he meant. “Look…” He set the box down he had been sifting through. “You and I will still be friends, we’ll still do the work, we’ll still be close.” He tried to assure him with a soft smile. “I just think...I want another friend. I can have more than one friend.” 

Unfortunately, Herbert didn’t look convinced at all. 

“They had better not get in the way of the work.” Herbert said with a huff, and retreated into the new basement, no doubt to wait for Dan to come help him set up his equipment. 

Alone in the kitchen, Dan let out an exhausted sigh. Maybe he’d just get another cat instead, and hopefully Herbert wouldn’t kill this one.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan finally finds a roommate (with no help from Herbert.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope it's not too boring or too short. I'm working on making longer chapters.   
> From this chapter on they will be longer, promises.   
> Thanks for reading I appreciate it.

It was two days after Dan had posted in the paper that he was looking for a third roommate, with the address of their new home. He had gotten a few interested callers, but Herbert had shot down all of them. Really, he wasn’t even sure why he was letting him help, what did he know about being a good roommate? 

On the second day, around noon, a guy showed up, newspaper in hand, inquiring about the room. Much like Herbert had.

The guy seemed normal enough to Dan, though he wasn’t sure he was a good judge of character anymore. Not after all the things he’d ignored and put up with. 

He was about the same height as Dan himself, similar build too. Probably liked to watch sports, probably didn’t like to cut up bodies in the basement. That would be ideal. Though there were some weird things about him, scars, missing a hand. Dan was a doctor though, those could be from any accident. 

He hated that his first thought was that Herbert could probably find a way to fix his hand for him, if Herbert were actually inclined to help people. 

“So uh, sorry it’s still kind of a mess. We aren’t really done unpacking.” He said, guiding the other around the house. “Your room would be this one, just down the hall.” He showed him the empty room, "What did you say your name was again?"

"Ashley." The other answered, holding his flesh hand out for Dan to shake. "You can call me Ash though." 

Dan wasn't gonna comment on how Ashley was a strange name, he just smiled and shook his hand. "Alright, Ash."

“So, you said there was someone else who lives here too?” He asked, looking around as if looking for Herbert. 

“Oh, yeah, but you probably won’t see much of him. He’s kinda...Shy.” Dan decided that was the best way to describe his roommate. Shy didn’t make him sound like a menace to society. 

Ash seemed to understand, nodding in response and continuing to look at the room. “Yeah, I’ll take it. I got all my shit in my car already, if you don’t mind me moving in now.” 

Dan had deja-vu to when Herbert had showed up, ready to move in, but he just smiled and nodded. “Alright, yeah. I’ll help you.” 

That was that. Dan had moved someone into the house without Herbert ever even meeting him. Maybe he shouldn't have, but it served him right. If he was allowed one dig on Herbert he was gonna take it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan starts to think having two roommates may have been a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is actually too long.  
> I hope I'm doing Ash right, I like him but I've never written him before.  
> Yall can yell at me if I'm not doing it right.  
> Dan makes a sandwich in the chapter, and I forgot to actually write him eating it. So I guess you can decide for yourself what happens to it.  
> Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

Herbert didn't actually meet Ash until he'd been living with them for three days. 

Dan thought it was sort of funny that it took him that long to realize there was someone else in their house, but lately Herbert had been throwing himself into the work with no time for breaks.

Dan and Ash were in the kitchen together, Dan was making himself a sandwich, and Ash was grabbing another beer from the fridge. 

Unfortunately, Dan had found that Ash was typically drunk by 4 PM, and unconscious by midnight. It didn't make him a bad roommate, it was just worrying to him. Ash was still a stranger for the most past though, so he didn't bring it up. 

Other than that, he was everything Dan had been looking for. He liked to watch television, and he ate dinner with him at the table like a normal person. He could excuse the typical intoxication in favor of the normal behavior. 

Herbert had come up from the basement, and into the kitchen, Dan glanced over his shoulder at him, "Do you want a san-" he started to ask, but what cut off.

"Who are you?" Herbert asked, his tone accusatory for seemingly no reason. 

Ash turned around slowly, looking a little confused. "Me?" He asked, pointing to himself. 

Herbert just looked frustrated with his lack of an answer. "Of course you. Why would I ask Dan who he was?"

"Herbert, that's Ash. He lives here." Dan said, as if he were just talking to the smaller man about the weather. "Now, do you want a sandwich?" 

The shocked and angry look on Herbert's face was enough to make Dan grin. 

"I- You can't just-" Dan had never seen Herbert at a loss for words, usually he had something to say. 

"I saw you in the kitchen yesterday, man." Ash spoke up, looking even more confused as he opened his beer. "I was looking in the fridge and you came in and washed your hands.” 

Herbert was quiet for a moment, thinking. "I thought you were Dan." 

Ash looked at Dan, and Dan looked back at him. "You gotta get your glasses checked little guy." Ash joked, laughing as he made his way out of the kitchen with his beer. 

Leaving Dan with a very angry looking Herbert. 

"Look, I know you're mad, but he showed up ready to move in, and what else was I supposed to say?" Dan asked, holding his finished sandwich out to Herbert. 

"You should have asked me! You should have at least told me!" He swatted the sandwich away, and crossed his arms over his chest. "How long has he been here?" 

"He moved in three days ago." Dan confessed, "He's alright, if you care to actually introduce yourself to him." He suggested, moving to sit at the kitchen table with the sandwich Herbert had refused. 

"I'll do no such thing. I don't need to know him as long as he stays out of my way." Herbert argued. 

"You felt that way about me too, when you moved in with me.” Dan pointed out, and Herbert rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying we have to involve him in...Anything, but I think it would be nice for you to have a friend that wasn’t me.” He explained. “Why don’t you come watch television with us?” 

For a moment, Herbert looked like he was considering it, and Dan felt like he’d finally won an argument. 

“I’m working.” 

Like always, Dan had been too optimistic, too soon. 

“Fine Herbert. Stay in the basement by yourself. I’m gonna go work on being friends with our new roommate.” Dan sighed, “If you actually want to join us, you’re more than welcome to. I’m sure he wants to get to know you too.” With that, Dan picked up his sandwich on the plate and carried it off into the living room. 

He heard Herbert go back down into the basement, and he looked over at Ash, who was staring at the television, beer in hand. 

“Sorry about him.” Dan started, “I wish I could say he’s not usually like that, but I’d be lying.” 

Ash just laughed, “Yeah, I thought you said he was shy, not an asshole.” He said, shaking his head. “It’s alright though, I get it.” 

Dan figured that he probably didn't get it, but it was good that he was so agreeable. That was sort of the only way you could be when it came to Herbert. 

The two sat in relative silence for a short while, watching the television, at some point Ash got up for another beer, and when he returned, Dan watched him for a moment. 

"So...Where are you from?" He asked finally, hoping to get to know his new roommate a little better. 

"Michigan. What about you?" Ash answered, looking over at Dan. "You from around here?" 

"Oh yeah, I'm from here." He answered, smiling, "What brought you from Michigan to Arkham?" 

Ash laughed, which wasn't the response he'd been expecting.

"I didn't know we were playing 21 questions, Dan." He said, grinning at him, "You know that means I'm gonna ask you if you're a virgin, right?" 

Dan choked on nothing, while he struggled to find a reply, Ash just laughed. 

"Relax, I'm just messing with you. I know you're probably not a virgin." Ash continued. "I mean, probably." He smirked at Dan, who was still trying to regain his composure. 

Maybe he'd forgotten what it was like to talk to someone who wasn't Herbert, but Ash's playful nature had caught him completely off guard. 

Dan laughed anyway, in fact the pair were too busy laughing to even notice Herbert had entered the room. 

The shorter man was standing in the doorway, cautiously looking at the spot on the couch next to Ash when Dan did notice him. 

"Herbert! Come sit with us." Dan invited him, and Ash looked in his direction. 

Surprisingly, Herbert reluctantly came to sit on the other side of the couch, as if trying to put as much distance between himself and Ash as possible. For a moment, Dan considered getting up and letting him have the armchair, but that might seem weird. 

“You two were being too loud. I couldn’t focus on my work.” Herbert said bitterly, looking pointedly at Ash, who just smiled at him. 

“I think you were just lonely.” Ash said, taking a drink of his beer. 

Herbert stared at him, and Dan found himself worried about having them both in the same room. 

“What happened to your hand?” Herbert asked as if it were an ordinary thing to say to someone. There was a time when Dan had actually liked that the shorter man always said what was on his mind. This was not one of them. 

For a moment, Ash was quiet, looking down at his prosthesis as if he’d forgotten he was even missing a hand. Then he looked back to Herbert with a concerned look. 

“It uh, got infected. Had to get it cut off.” Something about that sentence didn’t seem very convincing, but Herbert just hummed and nodded. 

“Interesting. A lie, but interesting.” He said, adjusting his glasses and continuing to look the other man over. “You should have gotten stitches for that cut on your chin.” He pointed out, “It wouldn’t have left such a bad scar if you had.” 

Ash looked aggravated, which was weird, since Dan had only ever seen him happy or drunk so far. 

“Yeah well, I didn’t really have time for stitches, sue me.” Ash replied, frowning at Herbert, “Also, it’s not a lie, that is what happened to my hand.” 

“Do you typically drink during the day? You know that’s a sign of alcoholism? Common in men your age coping with trauma.” Herbert asked, obviously not knowing when to stop. 

“Hey, that’s enough.” Dan cut in, not wanting a fight to break out between his two roommates. Especially since he would no doubt end up defending Herbert. “Just leave him alone, Herbert.” Dan frowned at the shorter man, who just stared back at him. 

Ash looked between Dan and Herbert, before scoffind and pushing himself up off the couch. “I’ll talk to you later, Dan.” He said, retreating down the hall to his bedroom. 

“I don’t like him.” Herbert said as soon as Ash was out of the room. “It’s obvious that he’s hiding something, and he’s an alcoholic. That sort of person is going to be a danger to the work.” 

“Do you ever think about anything other than the damn work?” Dan asked, shaking his head, “Do you ever think about maybe having normal conversations with people? Making friends?” 

“Why would I need friends? I have you.” Herbert pointed out, “I don’t know why you think I need to make friends with this man. Obviously he’s only here because you like him. Though I’m not sure why.” 

“Because I just want all of us to live here in peace, is that too much to ask?” Dan asked, looking at Herbert with pleading eyes. “Just...Try and be nicer next time?” Compromising again. 

“Hopefully there won’t be a next time.” Herbert said shortly, and got up from his place on the couch, “Will you join me in the basement? I need your help cleaning something up.” 

Dan let out an exhausted sigh, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. “Yeah, let’s go.” 

He shut the television off and followed Herbert into the basement.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lab gets cleaned, Dan gets some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is probably boring and late but I've recently fallen into the deepest depression of my life and I don't want to live let alone write.   
> I also think I have covid.  
> I tried though.   
> Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

Cleaning up the lab didn't take long. Herbert hadn't even made that much of a mess. Sometimes it felt like he just wanted Dan to be down there with him. 

"So what do you think happened to his hand?" Herbert asked suddenly, wiping off the operating table. 

Dan looked up from where he was shoving a Styrofoam container he really didn't feel like opening into a small fridge. "He said it got infected, so that's what I believe happened to it." He said, shrugging. 

Herbert laughed, but it was short and cold. "That's obviously a lie." He started, turning to Dan, "You should try and ask him about it." 

"No. If he's lying about it, he doesn't want to talk about it." Dan argued, shaking his head. "It's none of our business anyway." 

Herbert just hummed, and looked into one of the containers. "Perhaps I could reattach a hand for him." 

"No." Dan shot the idea down right away, "Absolutely not. We are not getting him involved in any of this." Herbert had a real problem of pulling anyone close to Dan into his world of insanity. He wasn't going to let that happen with Ash. 

"Well I was just trying to be helpful." Herbert huffed, tossing a towel into the linens bin. 

"You're never trying to be helpful." Dan sighed, looking around the now clean lab. "You finished up pretty early today." 

"I'm plenty helpful, thank you." Herbert snapped, frowning at Dan. "And I'm not finished up. I was wondering if you would like to help me with some written notes and some research." 

Dan hesitated, knowing full well what he should do is check on Ash, after Herbert's rude line of questioning, the other was bound to be upset. 

"I can help you for an hour, yeah." He agreed, shrugging. Herbert probably didn't actually need help, but he would never outright ask Dan to spend time with him, something he'd noticed early on in their friendship. 

So the two of them headed back upstairs, just in time to come face to face with Ash again, who was taking an empty drinking glass from the kitchen to his bedroom. 

Dan could only assume the glass was for some sort of alcohol he had stashed away in there, he wasn't about to question him about it. 

"Make sure you bring that back to the kitchen to be washed in the morning." Herbert called after him, but he was just met with the taller man slamming his bedroom door. 

"He's rude." Herbert huffed, grabbing one of his medical textbooks off the bookshelf and heading to the couch with it. "You really should have let me meet him before you moved him in."

Dan sighed, and followed Herbert to the couch, sitting down beside him. "He's fine when you're not around, and you didn't exactly make a great first impression on him." He reminded him, frowning. 

With all the sighing and frowning he was doing, he was going to have wrinkles before he was thirty five. Herbert had already given him a few gray hairs. 

"Well he didn't make a good first impression on me either." Herbert argued, "Besides, I doubt he'll be here long." He opened the text book to a chapter about the brain. 

"What makes you say that?" Dan asked, concerned.

"Well he's obviously trying to get away from something. People on the run don't stay in one place too long. Lest you forget our time in Peru." Herbert smiled at him, and he had half a mind to wipe it off his face. Only half a mind though, only ever half. 

"You suggested Peru, not me." He said, shaking his head and looking down at the book. 

Herbert's 'research' took longer than Dan had expected, and if he nodded off a few times against the smaller man, well who could blame him? There were only so many times he could read over the same passage about brain function. 

Around the third time he woke up from a short nap, Herbert had closed the text book, and was just sitting there, looking curiously at Dan's sleeping face. 

He blinked a few times, before pulling away and furrowing his brows. "Herbert...Are you watching me sleep?" 

"Well you kept falling asleep. What else am I supposed to do?" He said, standing up from the couch and taking the book back to the shelf. "I suggest you go to bed." 

Dan couldn't help but feel that Herbert looked a little embarrassed. It made him seem a little more human. 

"Yeah, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna go to bed?" He asked, although he probably already knew the answer was no. 

"Of course not. I'm going back down to the lab. There's something I've been working on that I want to finish so it can be tested." He didn't elaborate any more before he was standing at the basement door, hand on the knob. "Goodnight Dan." He said finally, before heading down for the night. 

"Goodnight Herbert." Dan manged to get out just before it was too late. Of course, he wondered what he might be working on, but maybe it was better not to know. For now, anyways. 

Ignoring the way his joints popped when he got up off the couch, he checked the clock on the wall. It was a quarter to ten. Sitting with Herbert really had taken up more time than he thought. 

Shaking his head, he turned the lamp off and headed down the hallway towards his bedroom. Stopping when he was outside of Ash's room.

The door was closed, but the light was on. 

Feeling guilty about how the day had gone, he knocked a few times, but got no answer. Of course, given the time, it was safe to assume the other was drunk by now. 

That didn't stop him from opening the door. 

The sight inside was what he'd been expecting, Ash was passed out, half off the bed, clutching an empty glass in his flesh hand, and an empty liquor bottle in the other. 

Dan told himself he was only intervening in this because it could become dangerous if something were to break in the night. 

Carefully, he pushed the other fully onto the bed, trying not to move him too much in case he woke up. Though, that didn't seem like much of a possibility. 

Once the empty glass and the bottle were removed from the bed, he set them on the dresser, alongside several crushed beer cans and much to his surprise and dismay, a shotgun. 

Something told him that someone like Ashley, should not have a shotgun readily available to them, and he'd had to talk to him about that. 

Before he left the room, he looked back at the man on the bed, wondering if he should remove his prosthetic hand so he didn't hurt himself. Taking a closer look at it though, he wasn't sure how he'd even get it off. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen in the medical field before. 

In a last minute decision to avoid him possibly choking and dying in his sleep, he rolled him over onto his side, which had been his mistake. 

Ash jerked a bit, causing Dan to pull away immediately. 

"Linda?" Ash had slurred the name, and reached out blindly grasping at nothing. 

Dan didn't say anything, but he backed away from the bed quietly, shutting the light off on his way out, and closing the door. 

There was still a lot he didn't know about his new roommate, but he wanted to learn more. Now just wasn't the time for that. 

Finally, he headed to his own room and put himself to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you look at someone through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes the chapter description is lifted straight from Bojack Horseman.   
> This chapter spawns entirely from me being sick and depressed.   
> I've also wondered for a while what drinking re-agent would do to a person.   
> I decided it would make you sick.   
> Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it.

It's only two days after that miserable interaction that Dan finds Ash and Herbert in the same room again. 

In fact, he walks into the kitchen just in time to watch Ash finish downing a glass of what he can only assume is re-agent. Herbert is watching him and smirking, the way he did when he first showed him his odd little creatures made from body parts. 

"Yeah it doesn't taste very good." Ash remarks, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Kinda burns too." He adds, grimacing. 

"Herbert!" Dan cuts in, frowning at the pair. "What are you doing?" 

Herbert looks at him with the same amount of guilt as a kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. 

"Dan. I didn't know you were home." He said innocently, "Ashley was just helping me with an experiment." 

Dan really wanted to believe that Herbert wasn't trying to murder his new friend. Unfortunately, it really seemed that way. 

"And...What kind of experiment would that be?" He asked, stepping closer to them and looking Ash over, who had gone quiet and was starting to look a little pale. Great. 

Herbert seemed to notice this as well, taking a moment to write something down in his notebook. 

"Ashley? How do you feel?" He asked, taking a closer look at Ash, although the taller man instantly pushed him away lightly.

"Uh...Bad. I'm gonna go lay down or something." He mumbled, turning away from the two of them. 

He took about three steps before falling face first onto the kitchen floor. 

"Herbert!" Dan exclaimed, rushing over to where Ash had fallen, trying to see if the other was still alive. 

Thankfully, Ash was still breathing, but he was pale and covered in a sheen of sweat.

"Well that's not what I had hypothesised at all." Herbert said softly, writing something else down. "He should live. It was a weakened solution. Altered to be taken orally." 

Even with the confirmation that Ash was going to live, Dan was still pissed off. He couldn't even go to the store without Herbert trying to poison his friend. He shouldn't have to live like this. 

When he didn't respond, Herbert came to crouch by him, reaching out to take Ash's pulse. 

"Hm, accelerated heart rate." He pointed out, and Dan frowned. "Would you like me to help you carry him to his room?" 

Dan sighed, before nodding and moving to grab Ash's arms. "You get his legs." He instructed, hoisting the man up. He was heavier than Dan assumed he would be. 

Slowly, the two of them made it to Ash's room, and laid him out on the bed. 

"What were you trying to do to him?" Dan asked, shooting an accusing look at Herbert. 

Herbert was looking around the room, frowning at the mess before he turned his attention back to Dan. 

"I was simply testing a different form of re-agent on him. Its not lethal, and it's made for the living, though I'm glad I didn't test it on myself." 

It didn't take Dan long to put two and two together. Obviously Herbert was trying to make a re-agent he could use himself without having to inject it. Ridiculous. 

"You should have left him out of it." Dan argued, "He's not a test subject, he's our roommate!" 

"He's your roommate." Herbert argued back, taking Ash's pulse again. 

"You live here too! That makes him your roommate!" Dan hadn't even realized he was raising his voice. 

"Am I dead?" The question came from Ash, who still had his eyes closed, but seemed to have regained some form of consciousness. 

Herbert opened his mouth to speak, but Dan cut in before he could. 

"No. You're alive." He said, relieved that he had woken up and seemed to still be human. 

"Damn." Ash mumbled, slowly opening his eyes before blinking a few times. After a moment of looking unfocused at the ceiling, he settled his gaze silently on Dan. 

“Are you okay?” Dan asked, batting Herberts hand away from Ash’s neck. He still looked paler than normal, but not like he was going to keel over, that was an improvement. 

“Oh I feel like a million bucks, thanks for asking.” He replied sarcastically, smirking at Dan before turning his attention to Herbert, who was writing something down in his notebook. “You are never making me a drink again.” 

Dan wondered why you would trust any drink that was glowing and green in the first place, let alone a drink from Herbert. At least he knew better, but he’d known the scientist longer. 

“Noted. How do you really feel?” Herbert asked without looking up from his notes, “Nauseous? Light headed?” 

“Uh, all of the above?” He answered, sitting up but wincing. “Yeah, feels pretty bad. Like a bad hangover.” 

“A hangover?” Herbert questioned, looking up from his notes and raising an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, you know?” He took a moment to look Herbert over, “You probably don’t know.” He turned his attention back to Dan. “It feels like a bad hangover. Think New Year’s Day hangover mixed with the morning after your first college party.” 

Dan clicked his tongue, “Oh that’s bad.” He said, shaking his head. Ash was right though, Herbert wouldn’t understand what that meant. He turned to Herbert, “Headache, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, muscle pain.” He summed up the symptoms for him. 

“Very interesting…” Herbert mumbled, jotting it down. “Hes skipped the initial effects and gone straight to the comedown phase. Not what I had hypothesized at all.” He looked up from his notes to look Ash over again. “Dan will take care of you. He’s better with patients.” 

Before Dan or Ash could say anything, Herbert had dismissed himself from the room, scribbling away at his notes as he left. 

“Well I didn’t know I moved into a hospital.” Ash said, watching Herbert leave the room. Dan just sighed, and sat down on the edge of the bed. 

“I am so sorry about this. I don’t know how I can make this up to you.” Dan struggled to find the proper apology. It was no secret people typically didn’t like being used as test subjects against their will. 

“Hey it’s alright. I’ve had worse happen to me.” Ash sighed, lying back on the bed again, “I’m just kinda wondering... what exactly happened here.” 

Dan hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn’t be letting on too much of the truth. 

“Well Herbert is sort of a...Experimentalist. I think he’s trying to formulate an energy drink, or something like that…” That seemed believable, at least in Dan’s opinion. 

“Well he should keep trying, cause right now he sucks at it.” Ash groaned, stretching. “I’m gonna be feeling this one for a while…” 

Dan would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised by how well Ash was handling the situation, anyone else would probably be furious and packing their bags to move out right now. Ash was just lying there, complaining about the side effects of Herbert’s experiment. 

“Anything I can do to help?” Dan asked, looking down at Ash and frowning. 

Ash just closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose, “Talk to me?” He offered, keeping his eyes closed, “Just don’t be too loud.” He added. 

“Oh yeah, of course.” Dan nodded, “Uh, so the other day I came to check on you, but you were already asleep so…” He shifted uncomfortably, remembering the way Ash had woken up and grasped at nothing, and how tense the whole room had felt. “So do you take that thing off, or…?” 

Ash didn’t reply for a moment, before opening his eyes to look at Dan, “What? My hand?” He asked, holding up the appendage in question. “Well I mean, I can take it off, I just don’t.” 

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to sleep with though?” He asked, taking the opportunity to take a closer look at it. “I’ve never seen a prosthetic built like this.” Without really thinking about it too much, he reached out and touched it. 

The design looked ancient. Medieval maybe? Definitely european, but Ash was from Michigan, so how did that work? 

Ash looked for a moment like he was going to pull his hand away from Dan, but instead he just watched him, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Well it’s one of a kind. I built it.” He said proudly.

“You built it?” Dan asked, unable to hide his surprise that the man who had drank a mysterious green substance, and who laughed at people falling down on the television, and could get himself so worked up he would shoot beer out of his nose, had built his own prosthetic hand. 

Ash looked offended at Dan’s surprise, “Yeah I built it. You don’t believe me?” He pulled his hand away, frowning. 

“No, I believe you.” Dan put his hands up defensively, “I’m just...Shocked is all. You don’t really seem the type…” 

“Well I went to college for engineering. I think I can build a hand.” Ash replied shortly, pushing himself up into a sitting position. 

That shocked Dan even more, “You went to college?” He didn’t mean for the question to sound rude, but he could tell by Ash’s face that it had come out that way. 

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?” He asked, straightening up, “Just cause I didn’t go to fancy pants medical school like you and your weird little friend.” 

Ash's tone was accusing, and Dan figured he probably deserved that. 

"I don't think your stupid, you just don't seem like the college type to me." He tried to backpedal and make up for what he had said. 

Ash just stared at him for a moment, as if trying to decide if he still wanted to be angry at him, in the end, his expression softened, and he rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah, I guess I'm not the college type." There was an underlying sadness in the statement, and Dan tried not to focus on it too much. 

With that, things de-escalated as quickly as they had escalated. The air in the room was still tense, but filled with uncomfortable silence. 

Until Ash was suddenly moving to leave the bed, pushing past Dan and stumbling out of the room entirely. 

"Hey, wait!" Dan called after him, pushing himself up off the bed and following him out, just in time to see him disappear into the hallway bathroom. 

Since moving into the house with Herbert, Dan had taken up the master bedroom, which had it's own bathroom attached, leaving the hallway bathroom for Ash and Herbert to share. 

"Ash?" He stood outside the mostly closed over door, flinching at the gagging noises leaving the bathroom. 

Even as a doctor, Dan did not like vomiting. So he waited outside until the sounds subsided, and the sound of the toilet flushing took their place. 

"Ash are you alright?" He asked, pushing the door open and taking a look inside. 

Two things stood out about the bathroom. 

It was incredibly clean, sterile almost. He figured that had been the work of Herbert. 

The mirror had been covered up by a towel, which he assumed meant one of them had broken it. 

"Uh, is this like, broken?" He asked, moving to pull the towel down. 

"Don't touch that." Ash interrupted his action, grabbing his wrist. 

The action surprised Dan, and his eyes widened at the other, "Did... Something happen to it?" He asked slowly, looking between the covered mirror and Ash. 

Hesitantly, Ash released his grip on Dan's wrist, and swallowed. "No. There's nothing wrong with it like, physically. I just don't want to see it." 

The answer was strange, the whole situation was strange, and Dan had really thought he finally found something in his life was that normal. 

Of course not. 

Dan Cain didn't get to have normal things anymore. 

"Are you okay?" He asked finally, looking Ash over. 

It didn't make sense for the other to have an aversion to mirrors. He wasn't bad looking at all. Even the scars on his face didn't make him any less handsome. 

But now there was the drinking, the scars, and the hand. The shotgun, and now the mirror, all red flags pointing towards his roommate being very much not okay. Red flags he'd selfishly wanted to ignore in favor of having a normal friend. 

"What?" Came the genuinely confused sounding response from the other. 

"Are you okay?" He repeated, slowly, 

No real answer came, just a moment of silence, followed by a half-hearted laugh from the other before he pushed past Dan and returned to his bedroom, closing the door behind him, closing Dan out. 

Dan knew first-hand how difficult it was to live with trauma, and how difficult it was to tell someone else about it. He would probably never tell anyone about the things that had happened to him, the things he had seen. 

So why did he expect someone he hardly knew to tell him anything? Even if he just wanted to help. 

Maybe now just wanted a good time. Ash was sick, and he was clearly not in a mood to entertain any questions from Dan. 

Before he left the bathroom, he looked under the towel to confirm the mirror wasn't broken. 

It was fine, not shattered, and all he saw looking back at him was himself. 

Exhausted, and sad behind the eyes. 

Just Dan. 

He sighed before he turned off the light and headed down to the basement to see if he could make himself useful to Herbert.


End file.
